Is there intelligent life in space? For a long time, people who reported UFO sightings were ridiculed and discredited by the US government. But two years ago, Washington took a U-turn – and is now publishing secret data on reported celestial phenomena for the second time. Many of them cannot be explained.
A saucer-like flying object over dark treetops. Below it is written in large white block letters “I WANT TO BELIEVE.” Fans of the US cult series “The X-Files” should remember this picture vividly: It is the poster in Fox Mulder’s office. The FBI special agent does everything in his power to solve supernatural phenomena in the ’90s TV hit. Extraterrestrial life, UFOs, aliens – Mulder wants to believe. And apparently that’s what the US government wants in real life, even officially. In a recent report to Congress, the US military writes that it has no explanation for numerous observations of unidentified flying objects. So do aliens exist?
But let’s start from the beginning: As in “The X Files”, the real US military has long kept a secret out of unknown flying objects, i.e. UFOs. Observations going back to the 1940s have been dismissed and discredited for decades. In June 2021, however, the secrecy will surprisingly come to an end – for security reasons, as they say. Previously secret files are published. A year later, at a hearing in the US House of Representatives, the numbers are on the table: there has been talk of 400 UFO sightings since 2004 alone, and the trend is rising. Secret services and the military have no explanation for around 140 celestial phenomena from the past two decades.
However, the phenomena are no longer called UFOs (unidentified flying objects), but UAP, short for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. “EAPs are inexplicable, that’s true. But they’re real. They need to be investigated,” said Andre Carson, chairman of the House Counterintelligence Subcommittee at the time. Rep. Peter Welch notes, “Nobody knows if extraterrestrial life exists. It’s a big universe. And it would be pretty presumptuous to draw a firm conclusion.” And senior Pentagon official Ronald Moultrie, who revealed himself to be a science fiction fan at the hearing, says: “We’re open to any hypotheses and conclusions we might come across.”
According to experts, the increase in UAP reports in recent decades can be attributed to factors such as improved sensors or newer flight systems such as drones. But it is also a result of the military’s efforts to demand reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects, which used to be stigmatized. “The message is clear now: if you see something, you have to report it,” says Moultrie. At the time, the UAP task force did not find any evidence that some of the inexplicable celestial objects were of extraterrestrial origin. And even today there is no solid evidence.
According to the current report, some of these “unidentified airborne phenomena” would exhibit “unusual flight characteristics or performance” and required further analysis. Specifically, it is about 171 newly evaluated sightings. Around 200 other reports were rated as “unremarkable”. They are ordinary objects in the air – such as drones, balloons and debris such as plastic bags.
Now, the unclassified version of the report doesn’t include details about each case. The most interesting information about UAP sightings would likely remain classified and hidden from the public, suggests Avi Loeb, a Harvard astrophysicist who chairs the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee and has written a controversial book on the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. “Even if one of the hundreds of UAP objects reported is extraterrestrial in origin and that object poses no threat to national security, its identification will be the most important discovery mankind has ever made,” Loeb writes on the Medium website.
But it’s not that far yet. That could be because the US government continues to withhold important information, Loeb claims. It is more likely, however, that there have simply been no alien visits to Earth – because extraterrestrials do not exist or because they are at home in galaxies far too far away.
While the US government’s new openness hasn’t yielded any insights one way or the other, it hasn’t been in vain. On the security front, Christopher Mellon, a former Pentagon official, welcomes the fact that “the UAP issue is gaining traction and acceptance within government.” It is important to raise awareness of security challenges posed by drones – for example, possible Chinese surveillance drones.
And the destigmatization of UAP reports is also giving new impetus to science. For example, NASA set up an independent committee last year to evaluate reports of non-military sightings. This body is expected to present its findings in mid-2023. During a discussion forum last October, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson opened up about the prospects for intelligent life beyond Earth. “My personal opinion is that the universe is so big, and there are even theories now that there might be other universes,” he said. “And if that is the case, who am I to say that planet Earth is the only place where a life form as civilized and organized as ours exists?”
In the end, the only question that remains is: Which idea is scarier? We are alone. Or we are not alone. What do you think?